Conservative Party Chair Baroness Warsi recently came to Bradford to meet Bradford Muslim women. The Bradford Circle of the city's Muslim Women's Council, who invited her as part of our series of meetings, managed to arrange the get-together at short notice, and in a matter of days had gained an audience of over fifty local women who wanted to hear answers to their questions.

As the second senior politician to address the group, she was a contrast to Ed Miliband, who met us last month. Obviously she has different politics. But she is, of course, a Muslim woman too. So while Mr Miliband was coming to listen to us and hear what we had to say, Baroness Warsi's background meant she was able to engage in a different way.

Of course this doesn't mean she was given an easy ride. Local Muslim Women's Council members challenged her about immigration policy, education, the impact of cutbacks and austerity and the role Government has played in fuelling Islamophobia.

As the meeting was held under Chatham House rules, it was agreed no one would be quoted or have their views published, although the information is available to be used. However, the West Yorkshire-born politician, made it clear that she was there to both listen and explain why the government was taking various decisions.

She was robust and open in her discussion, firmly defending an array of government policies and explaining the rationale underlying decisions being made by the Coalition. She gave interesting comments to questions about how the government could help move Bradford up the league tables for educational and social circumstances. She was very clear that increasing the role of manufacturing and providing growth that can see the economy thrive will help produce a situation where these improve.

I was pleased to see her commitment to standing up against Islamophobia, and determination that we all have a role to play to make sure that we are not discriminated against because of our faith. Muslims have a proud role to play in our communities, working alongside those from others faiths and none.

Similarly women and men can work together to improve the communities we live in. That will be real community cohesion, and it will reflect on us all in a way that means we can see Bradford get better, showing other communities the way forward and being an example of the positive rather than the negative.

We need to meet the challenge to actively become involved in helping to improve the city, to make our voices heard and ensure we make our presence felt.

We look forward to further involvement from politicians from across the spectrum who are prepared to help us make a difference as time goes on and we rebuild our communities.